December, 1920 
Slower (Browar 
195 
MRS. AUSTIN’S TALKS 
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I ncid ents of a I 
Trip to Santa Rosa. 
WONDER if it’s the 
weather.” And slip- 
ping on my coat I 
started for a walk in 
the misty dampness of our 
first dull day in October, 
living again the day of 
nearly a year ago which 
was so persistently called 
to my mind by the similarity 
weather. 
The place where we were stopping 
at that time was located on a steep hill- 
side over which hovered a woodland 
of large size and many years’ growth, 
and which was especially noticeable 
because of the uniformity in size and 
height of the trees, and, quite unlike 
our forests of the east, those trees were 
standing in perfectly straight rows re- 
minding me, for all the world, of a 
planting of gigantic Gladioli. Of course 
you have already guessed it to be a 
Eucalyptus grove. 
Glued, like the nest of a swallow, to 
this almost perpendicular hillside, was 
the home of our friends, from whose 
kitchen outside door one ascended a 
stairway of several steps to reach the 
back yard, and when I walked across, 
or rather, up the yard, I found myself 
on the ground level of the forest and 
level with the roof of the house. From 
the living room, on the opposite side of 
the house, a door opened onto the front 
porch which was also the roof of the 
garage which faced and was entered 
from the street below. From this 
roof-porch the eye commanded a view 
of the city of San Franciso and the 
Bay, and in evening the twinkling 
lights of Berkeley, Oakland and Ala- 
meda added their star-like splendor to 
the scene. 
For a long time we had been treated 
to ideal California sunshine, but the 
particular morning to which I have 
reference, the fog rolled in gray and 
chilling, yet impelling. One had the 
feeling that he must pierce the gloom 
of mist and that in doing so he would 
find something interesting or beauti- 
ful beyond. We decided to go some- 
where, and, quickly packing a grip, we 
started on one of our numerous side 
trips out from the great city. Cross- 
ing the Bay we were soon settled in 
the coach of a railroad train north- 
ward bound. It was beginning to rain 
but the fog had cleared and new and 
unusual sights were flashing into view. 
Bill-boards picturing baskets filled 
with eggs attracted our attention and 
apprised us of our approach to the 
city of Leghorn chickens, the justly 
famous Petaluma. Chickens, chickens 
everywhere, and a large flock of the 
snowy fowls with their coral heads is 
indeed a beautiful sight. 
Another sight interested us there, 
and that was the ships in the little 
canal that had been dredged out from 
an arm of the Bay and gave the ships 
the appearance of being at 
port in a meadow. 
We reached Santa Rosa 
-sixty-nine miles from San 
Franciso— in a pouring rain, 
but there were plenty of 
taxies at the station and 
in a short time we were in 
a very comfortable hotel. 
When the rain slackened a 
little we went out to see 
the town and learn where 
to find the home of Luther Burbank 
with the intention of calling on him 
before leaving the town as that was 
the main object of our journey there. 
A church built of lumber from one 
tree was pointed out to us. A good 
sized all wood structure with tall 
steeple. In the Chamber of Commerce 
building there was a display of pro- 
ductions of Santa Rosa and surround- 
ing country, and among them various 
Burbank creations. Especially inter- 
esting were the specimens of large 
View on grounds of I.uther Burbank showing 
Artichokes in foreground. 
fruits and vegetables developed from 
those of only ordinary size. In our 
many rides we had seen thousands of 
Artichokes of the common variety, but 
the Burbank development was several 
times larger and well named Giant 
Hybrid Artichokes. We could have 
spent many hours in this place with 
every minute full of interest, but our 
time was limited, and leaving there we 
went to a flower store whose display 
window attracted us and discovered 
the proprietor to be a florist from our 
home town and from whom we had 
purchased our Ravenna home. He 
made the afternoon very pleasant for 
us by treating us to a fine ride in the 
country through a fruit growing dis- 
trict. 
The following day we called on Mr. 
Burbank and found him busily en- 
gaged with work among seedlings in a 
small greenhouse on his place. There 
were potted strawberry plants full of 
bloom in which he seemed much inter- 
ested and spoke of it as the Every 
Minute Strawberry. He also showed 
us seedling Bamboo and I believe he 
said that those were the first ones ever 
raised from seed. On the grounds he 
showed us the Artichoke plants from 
which the Giant Hybrids were grown. 
We saw the Elephant Garlic growing, 
a very great improvement over the 
common variety from which it was 
developed, it being several times larger 
As we were about to leave he directed 
our attention to a large Lebanan Cedar 
tree, whose branches drooped to the 
ground, and when standing underneath 
it seemed much like^a" large tent made 
of evergreen boughs. As we were 
about to leave he mentioned his cata- 
logue in which', are descriptions of his 
“ New Creations and special new selec- 
tions in seeds.” Send for it. It will 
interest you. 
It was a great pleasure to meet Mr. 
Burbank personally and we were 
greatly impressed with his evident 
kindness and simplicity, with no trace 
whatever of the egotism that is some- 
times attributed him, "and we left with 
feeling that we had met a man as good 
as he is great. 
Mrs. A. H. Austin. 
! The St. Thomas Horti- 
cultural Society. ! 
The local council of Women who 
recently conducted the tag day benefit 
for the St. Thomas Horticultral Society 
has sent a check to the Society for 
$75 “For the magnificent way in which 
the Society is beautifying the city.” 
The ladies further state that, “we are 
ever ready to help anything that will 
so evidently build up and sustain our 
lovely city.” 
At the meeting of the Ontario Horti- 
cultural Society executive, held in the 
Parliament buildings on Nov. 10th, the 
writer asked the co-operation of the 
district representatives in the 1921 
meeting of the American Gladiolus 
Society in St. Thomas. In most en- 
thusiastic speeches several members 
expressed their delight at Ontario 
securing this splendid convention and 
the unanimous support of every one 
present was pledged. The delegates 
also asked that they be advised from 
time to time of the progress of ar- 
rangements and plans so that they 
might constantly keep in touch the 
25,000 members throughout the Pro- 
vince. The secretary, Mr. J. Lockie 
Wilson, was also instructed to invite 
Mrs. A. H. Austin, of Ravenna, Ohio, 
to address the Society at their annual 
convention to be held early in February 
in Toronto, the paper to be on “Gladioli 
and their Culture,” the object being to 
stimulate interest in this beautiful 
flower and also create further interest 
in the coming A. G. S. show. 
The St. Thomas Horticultural Society 
has distributed amongst its mem- 
bers and planted in the boulevard beds 
some 80,000 Tulips, Hyacinths, Daffo- 
dils and other bulbs. The demand this 
year has been very heavy especially 
for the newer and better varieties. 
F. E. Bennett, Prest. 
The big show of the American Gladi- 
olus Society is a sure thing in St. 
Thomas in 1921. The exact date of 
the show has not been set, but it will 
doubtless be the middle of August. 
